Marina Abramović and Carmen Herrera featured in The Flag Project at Rockefeller Center

14 August 2020

The Rink at Manhattan's Rockefeller Center is the site of a new display, simply titled 'The Flag Project'. 193 flags have been brought together, each designed by a New Yorker, ranging from teenagers to contemporary artists including Marina Abramović, Carmen Herrera, Hank Willis Thomas, Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer and Sarah Sze, among others.

The flag submissions cover themes that celebrate love, unity, adversity and diversity, celebrating New Yorker's strength and resilience during this period shaped by the COVID-19 health crisis and the protests for racial justice.

Marina Abramović deployed a medical metaphor on her flag, which shows the echocardiography (EKG) line of a human heartbeat. Her red line, suggesting the resilience of the human spirit, beats across the white flag of surrender. ‘We must be strong in the face of the unknown and at the same time we must surrender to changes demanded of society, our politics, and our planet. The most important thing of all is that we keep going and never give up,’ she explains. Carmen Herrera's submission is true to her style, characterized by its radically reductive use of forms.

A map of the flags, and detailed images can be seen here. Learn more about The Flag Project here.

Image: The Flag Project at Rockefeller Center. Courtesy of Tishman Speyer